Shoe-shank.



E. B. STIMPSON.

sum: SHANK. APPLICAT IUN FILED MAR. 20' 1914,

Patented Dec. 26,1916.

sHoE-sHAnK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 26, 1916..

Application filed March 20, 1914. Serial No. 825,953.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWIN BALL STIMP- soN, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of New York, in the county of Kings and State of New York, (whose post-office address is No. 68 Franklin avenue, Brooklyn, New York,) have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Shoe-Shanks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention'relates to shoes, and particularly to a new and useful construction of shoe-shank for stiffening the arched inner and outer sole portions of a shoe, and in the relation of such a shank to the inner and outer sole.

Under the present practice the shank is usually secured at its forward end to one or the other of the two soles between which it lies. If it is not so secured the bending of the arch in walking soon causes the forward end of the shank to wear through the sole.

It has heretofore been proposed to fasten a wear-plate to the inner sole by means of three prongs, one of these prongs being disposed at each side of the shank, and the other prong in front of the shank to limit the longitudinal movement thereof in a forward direction. This wear-plate shields the outer sole from the destructive movements of the end of the shank, but had the disadvantage that it needed to be secured in place, and its location determined upon with practically impossible accuracy, lest the forward prong of the wear-plate stop the forward'travel of the end of the shank prematurely, so that the desired flexing of the. arch in walking would not be attained.

' By my invention it is contemplated that the forward end of the shank shall be floating, that is, without direct positive connection with either sole; that the soles between which it is positioned shall be protected by reason of an enlargement or thickening and rounding of the edge portions of the forward end; and that this end construction may be provided by a sheath fitting the forward end of the shank, flattened to correspond, and

having an open end for the reception of the shank extremity, and a closed tip to guard the end of the shank. Such a sheath may be put on the end of theshank, and the latter inserted between the soles, and no great care need be taken as to how far it is pushed in.

lf it transpires that it has not been pushed in far enough, the shank end, with the sheath, will move forward as the arch is flexed. And of course the sheath will be and in which I have shown an embodiment of the invention as at present preferred: Figure 1 is an elevation, partly broken away and partly in section, showing the application of my invention to an ordinary shoe; Figs. 2, 3, 4: and 5 are details of various forms of sheath which I may employ; Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 2; Fig. 7 is av section on the line 77 of Fig. 3; Fig. 8 is an end view of the subject-matter of Fig. 4; Fig. 9 is a section on the line 99 of Fig. 5; Fig. 10 is a plan View illustrating a modification; and Fig. 11 is a vertical section showing the subject-matter of Fig. 10.

Referring to the numerals on the drawings, l-il and 15 indicate inner and outer arched sole portions of a shoe, and between them appears a shank l6, arched to correspond, and having generally flat faces. The forward end of the shank is enlarged and rounded on its edges, and this is preferably accomplished by putting on the end a correspondingly flattened sheath 17, preferably open, at one end to receive the shank end, and closed at the other end. The walls of the sheath extending from face to face are rounded as indicated at 18, and the front end may also be rounded from side to side, as indicated at 19. Such a sheath may be put on the end of the shank, and then pushed home to the position shown in Fig. 1 after the forward parts of the soles have been joined together. The relation of the rear end of the shank to the shoe may be fixed in any usual or preferred manner.

The form of sheath shown in Figs. 2 and 6 is simply a flattened cap, open at one end and closed at the other, and with the closed end and edges rounded as described.

The end-piece or sheath shown in Figs. 3

and 7 is similar to that shown in Fig. 2, except that its upper face is cut out as at 20, and its lower face is rearwardly extended as at 21, to facilitate the introduction of the shank end.

The form shown in Fig. 4 is similar to that of Fig. 3, except that it does not include the extension 21.

In Fig. 5, the sheath of Fig. 2 is cut out on both faces; and in Figs. 10 and 11 one. face of the sheath is shown with an inturned prong 22, engaging in a slot 23 in the shank end. By this construction the sheath is held in assembled relation with the shank end at all times.

It is believed that the manner of using the invention will be clear from the foregoing. Materials, sizes and relativities of parts, are of course unimportant, except as specified in the claims.

Inasmuch as many changes could be made in the above construction, and many appar ently widely different embodiments of my invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

it claim:

1. The combination with a shoe-shank having a generally flattened end, of a unitary sheath having portions overlying the opposite faces and other portions overlying the side edges of said end.

2. The combination with a shoe-shank having a generally flattened extremity, of a unitary sheath having portions overlying the opposite faces, other portions overlying the side edges, and another portion overlying the end, of said flattened extremity.

3. In a shoe, two superposed layers of material, a generally flat shank positioned between the two layers, and a unitary sheath over one end of the shank, and within which the said end is longitudinally movable, said sheath having no direct positive connection with either layer of material, the end of the shank bein capable of moving in the sheath as the shank is flexed in the act of walking, and the sheath being longer than the distance traveled by the end of the sha'nk in the flexing of the latter.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

EDWIN BALL STIMPSON.

In the presence of- HELEN V. FITZPATRICK, Many H.Lnw1s. 

